Romanian paper raps British tabloids

Romania's biggest selling newspaper has launched a campaign branding British people "paedophiles, drunkards and hooligans" after what it claimed were repeated negative reports about Romanians in British tabloids.

The tabloid daily Libertatea began its anti-British campaign, titled "Look Who's Talking", on its front page today using a logo of a hand with an extended middle finger.

The report, which covered the entire front page, singled out The Sun for a recent article it said claimed Romanians could bring Aids to the UK.

Romanian officials had already responded to the Sun story by announcing that registered HIV/Aids cases in the UK were eight times higher than in Romania, but Libertatea went further, writing: "We are sick of English paedophiles."

The newspaper wrote: "British journalists have gone crazy. The Sun wrote yesterday that England would be crippled by Aids because of Romanian immigrants. In response today we are starting a campaign to remind the English of the numerous cases of paedophilia committed by their people in Romania."

In a double-page spread inside, the newspaper wrote that as Romanian officials had reacted to the the Sun article, it was also the paper's "duty" to "tell the truth about the English".

A headline read: "English = paedophiles, drunkards and hooligans".

The paper also provided readers with The Sun's email address and phone number and encouraged them to write describing how they feel about the article.

It added: "Libertatea believes that the problems caused by British citizens across Europe are more serious than those attributed to the Romanians. Hooliganism, alcoholism and sexual deviance are a few things that can be attributed to the British. But the most serious is paedophilia. We only want to tell the truth in this campaign so that British journalists start looking in their own backyards first."

The paper stated that the Romanian police archives are full of paedophilia cases involving British citizens in Romania. "We are talking about children whose souls have been mutilated by the animal desires of some men for whom the British traditionalist spirit is reduced to Stone Age instincts."

It then listed the most serious paedophilia cases in Romania allegedly involving British criminals.

· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 7278 2332.

· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".